No, don't shoot, don't shoot!(complements of Daddy)
Nice front yard find by Mom.

A Horse!

Well, I finally have a horse in the pasture.=) We don't own him yet, right now we're just "trying" him, to see if he'll work for us. I think Mom said something about how this came about, so I won't tell you the whole story over again, but I can tell you about the horse. First of all, his name is Bourbon(apparently like Bourbon Whiskey), and he's a registered American Paint Horse. He's about 19, but still young at heart. I guess he used to be a stud till they gelded him a few years ago and that's why (as Mom said) he doesn't get along w/ other horses. Actually, it's just other geldings that don't work, he gets along w/ mares just fine...till you try to ride him away from them. That's pretty common though. When our friends brought him over, Linnea(the guy's granddaughter) and I rode around the property a couple times, the first time just walking, then we cantered some. It was fun.=) He hasn't galloped yet, but I don't think he's up to that quite yet. He's kinda out of shape right now, but then, so am I.=] Today my entire family wanted to ride of course(they were being kinda weird about it too, but I guess that's what families are for), so I walked them around one at a time. Then I got to ride and B pretty much took off as soon as I got on. Not super fast, but I could tell he wanted to go. Btw, sorry if this is really boring for you, but for those of you who like horses...

Anyways, he didn't listen super good the first time around and he wanted to sprint around all the turns(did I mention he's done barrels?) in the brush area, which is not very safe, so I got him a little slowed down on some of them, but as soon as the path had a section(no matter how short) anywhere near straight, he'd shoot off again. It was kinda thrilling, but I'd rather he listened to me a little better. When I got back after a short, very quick ride I let Dad go for a bit of a ride. Same thing happened to Daddy. I think Bourbon was feelin' frisky and wanted to explore...quickly. When Dad got back, Mom was going to ride, but I think we kinda scared her off unintentionally when we told her he wanted to go, explore, and wasn't listening amazingly. She decided to wait till another day. So I got to go again. Again, I didn't go very long or far because he's not in shape, it was the first day, and it was starting to mist cold. He listened a whole lot better the second time around. I took him at a walk(he even walked around the turns!) through the brush trails so he could start to learn them, and then after I let him canter along the back stretch, he slowed right down when I asked him to. It was much more fun when he listened to me.=) We'll see how he does tomorrow.

The little kids love 'im though.=) Especially Isaac. He's out there all the time petting him or something, probably picking some ticks off to. Bourbon is loaded w/ ticks! He also needs a bath...I think I might save that for Tuesday depending on the weather. Well, I guess we'll just have to wait and see how this works out for us. Keep your fingers crossed!;)

Zeke

I just remembered I never posted that embarrassing picture of Zeke. You've probably seen it before, and it's really not that embarrassing, but o well..........

Becky

Becky's birthday was yesterday. She turned 18. I now consider her as "old". =) It's actually kinda scary to think of my big sister as an adult(though she's acted like one pretty much all her life). So I guess there's a whole bunch of stuff out there that you can do when you turn 18. She googled it and there were a lot! I doubt she'll do all of them though.=) Anyways she's been a pretty good sister through the years...well, when she's not being bossy.=) Naw, she's not super bossy any more, but she used to be! I love her anyways(even when she says I can't sing...). <3

Love ya sister!! Hope you're 18th-wait that'd be 19th- year of life is amazing!!=) Thanks for being a good role model for me(and showing me what not to do too.=) Like getting a boyfriend right before you go off to college...;) ) Anyways, hope you'll have fun every time you come home whether it's your birthday or not.

your lil' sis,

Abby

Sunset

I love how artistic and creative God is! I have never seen two sunsets that look exactly alike. Why most change so fast it's hard to get a picture in!=) I think these are pics of the same sunset Mom and Ashley posted.

I'm boring.=(

OK, so a lot(ok, most) of my posts have been marked 3 or so times as "boring." Is there something I can do to make my blog more interesting for y'all?

Well I've decided not to play basketball after all. I'm actually just taking a break from sports, giving my body a rest. I had issues w/ my back during VB season, and towards the end of VB my ankles started bugging me. Mom and Dad just thought a change in sport would do the trick. Well after a couple weeks of basektball practice, I realized that my back had started bugging me again, and I kept hurting my ankles (mainly my right one, but my left one's been bugging me some too). So I decided (w/ some parental advice) that I wouldn't play basketball this year. I'll probably do what Becky ended up doing- score-keeping and such at most of the games...Now my problem will be to stay in shape over the winter. If all the days would be as nice as today was, it'd be easy to get outside and run. But, I guess even Missouri has to get cold sometime.

Dance!

For all of you who care, there's an ECLD on Saturday (the 14th) at the Salem commons. Dancing starts at 6:30, but you can come earlier to learn some of the basic steps. They like to be done by 10 I think it is, and bring a finger food to share.=) If you need directions, let me know! Hope to see you there! Oh yeah, this is a 12 and up dance, so hopefully, we'll do some really fun dances!=)

Debate!

So, I'm in this Co-op thing and one of the classes I'm in is speech class(my Dad's the teacher). For the last assignment we got to do a debate. We finally picked a topic- Is it OK to Lie in Some Situations? Or, Should You Never Lie?? Kelsey Q2, Josiah Nisbett, and I were on one team, and Sarah Hickle, Kayla Brown, and Laura Cook were on the other team. Me, K, and J argued that while lying as a rule is wrong, there are some situations that it's OK. The other argued that there's never a time to lie. We won.=) Well, no one officially won, but I think our arguments were better and we smashed there arguments better than they tapped ours.=) It was kinda fun once we got into it...we ran out of time though.......oh well.

VB vs. BB

Well, volleyball is over and basketball begins. This year I thought about playing club volleyball instead of basketball, but I decided to stick w/ basketball so I am "well-rounded" as my daddy likes to say. I hope I remember to post when our home games are so y'all can support us!=) We are charging admission this year to cover costs(like refs), but it'll be very minimal, like a dollar a person w/ $5 family cap. OK, I need to go do school now.....I have a debate coming up plus I'm hosting a book club and enlightening everyone in that about literature during the French revolution. Doesn't that sound fun?! TTFN!